Today's Paper

Foul play suspected in city student's death in US

HYDERABAD: An engineering student from the city died under suspicious circumstances at his apartment complex at Lafayette, Louisiana in United States, on June 9 even as his parents back home cried foul, alleging that it was a murder.

Ajmaluddin Mohammed, 23, pursuing his MS from Louisiana University, was reported to have been drowned in a swimming pool in the apartment minutes after he spoke to his mother Asima Afzal on Internet voice chatting.

"My son called me at 1.45 p.m. (IST) and told me about the preparations he was making for completion of his semester. He suddenly said he would continue chatting later as someone rang the doorbell.

That was the last I heard from him," the desolate mother said at her Humayunnagar residence here on Wednesday. Within a few hours, the family came to know that Ajmaluddin was no more.

`Clear case of murder'

Ajmaluddin, who finished his computer sciences engineering from Deccan Engineering College, Dar-Us-Salam, was to have celebrated his birthday on Wednesday.

"It's a clear case of murder. Why will my son go for swimming when he does not know swimming at all, and that too in the wee hours? We suspect he was pushed into the pool and killed," Asima said.

Ajmaluddin's father Mohammed Afzaluddin, Mandal Revenue Inspector in Malkajgiri Municipality, alleged that some known persons to his son could have eliminated him.

He said his son's friends-- Abdur Rehman, Zaki, Mansur and Lee-- had fled the apartment after the incident.

"We do not know much about them except that my son used to talk about them. In fact, he had shifted to this apartment only a fortnight ago," he said.

To seek US intervention

Afzaluddin said he would seek the intervention of the US Consulate in India and Chief Minister Y. S Rajasekhara Reddy to get to the crux of the matter.

"Though we have lost our son, no student from India should meet such a tragic end," he said, and added that his last rites were performed in US itself with the help of some relatives.

Ajmaluddin secured a student visa on June 29, 2005, and left on August 13.